Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 94417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“Is that not an act of war, my Lord?”
I allow the smirk to come to my face. “Also possibly.” A thrum of delight echoes in my blood. It has been so long since war has cast fear and shadows on all the realms and through an imbalance in the world. I reminisce on such freeing times.
More silence spreads between us. I watch Minox standing there with all the familiar shadows of my private rooms behind him.
“Zeus was there for you at the end,” Minox ventures. “He took you in when others would not.”
Emotion swells in me. It is dark and unwanted, and if I did not have such lengthy experience with it, I might react outwardly. But I do not react in any way that Minox can see, although I feel the memories as vividly as if they were still happening. I spent days in darkness in the pits where my father left me. All of the gods lived a life of blessings, but I was alone for years, nearly going mad.
Perhaps I did venture into madness… perhaps I still lay there in this hour.
That is how I know true torture. Of course there is pain. There is cold and hunger and even burning flesh. But all of those things can be survived. A soul can suffer those things for an eternity as long as they have the hope that it will end and they will have the comfort of other souls again.
I did not have that comfort, and that is why I reserve isolation for the most vile of souls who come before my judges. I know that pain so well that I cannot inflict it on anyone but the very worst. Those who deserve to fall into madness, hoping for a voice to answer them when none will ever come.
Minox is right. Zeus did come for me, in the end. And we triumphed together, along with Poisidon who rules the seas. Each of us given our own realms and the humans to wonder on Earth, merely play things to the Gods.
I feel it now, that hope of something more, swelling sharply in my chest and bringing a tightness to my throat that I cannot tolerate in myself. Not now, when I have enough power to keep all my realms ordered as they should be.
My gaze falls on Minox as if none of the memories had made any impression on me, as if his words had not stirred any feelings within me.
“Zeus would be a fool to wage war over what I am after. There are conversations and deals you are not privy to.”
“My Lord—”
“You will do as I command, Minox. I will not go to Zeus tonight. Tell the guard to carry my message. I will scry when I am ready.”
Minox lets out a barely audible sigh and turns away, heading for the door. He leans out, talking quietly to the guard I knew would be waiting outside. “My lord,” Minox says from the door, and bows. He steps back into the hall to let Cerberus enter the room.
I feel lighter, looking at my companion. His paws pad across the floor to me, all three heads of the beast who is my dog, bow before me as he whines for my affection and I bend down to let him put one of his three heads in my hand. The door closes, and I lower down fully to my faithful companion.
“You were there, too, my sweet boy.”
I notice the tinge of blood on the muzzles of Cerberus’s heads. I wet a cloth and lower myself again to wipe it away. When I have cared for my dog I glance at the bed that dominates this side of my room. There are new chains attached to the wall nearby.
Cerberus wags his tail, pushing another of his heads into my palm. He has six sets of ears, and he wants all of them scratched, and all three of his heads stroked. I indulge him, as I always do.
“I will have my queen, Cerberus.” Cerberus lets out a quiet bark as if in agreement. As if he knows of her beauty and her power that will change the world forever more. I know it in the marrow of my bones. “Anyone who stands in my way, in my realms or any other, will perish at our hands.” I continue stroking Cerberus’s heads and let my mind wander. From here the screams from the darkest depths of hell are not loud but they are still audible. “I have earned her. She has been promised. She is already mine.”
PERSEPHONE
The walk to see my father seems to take much longer than usual. Each step on the marble floors echoes. Every heartbeat seems slower and heavier. I can barely breathe as I make my way to Zeus. King of the Sky and God of Thunder. I peer out into the clear blue skies and pray it remains such a beautiful shade of cobalt even once our conversation has ended. The anger of Zeus brings about storms that flood with no mercy and lightning that terrorizes the sky.